Briefcase

Week 32 fixtures

Premier League
Liverpool 2 - 1 Aston Villa
Crystal Palace 0 - 1 Chelsea (17:30)
Burnley 1 - 1 Newcastle United (Sunday 12:00)
West Ham United 2 - 2 Leicester City (Sunday 14:05)
Tottenham Hotspur 1 - 1 Manchester United (Sunday 16:30)
Sheffield United 0 - 3 Arsenal (Sunday 19:00)

La Liga

Real Madrid 3 - 1 Barcelona (20:00)
Real Betis 0 - 2 Atlético Madrid (Sunday 20:00)

Serie A

Sampdoria 1 - 2 Napoli (Sunday 14:00)
Fiorentina 2 - 0 Atalanta (Sunday 19:45)

12 hours ago, BigJag said:

$2000 for front row!? That's almost £1500. What made them think they could charge that amount? 

That's really cheap for WrestleMania first row. Normally it's 2-3 times that amount and people pay it.

3 hours ago, BigJag said:

A quick check on Ticketmaster shows that they've pretty much sold out. Unless WWE are using multiple vendors.

I'm genuinely surprised that in the current climate people are snapping up the opportunity for what on the face of it is a very lacklustre looking Mania. One that will also not have the support events around it. Does that area of the country have much in the way of attractions to draw people in for a bit more than just Wrestlemania? 

I'm not sure if this would happen in the same week as Mania being an unusual year, but normally after tickets go on sale Ticketmaster only sell seats in blocks (e.g. sell the hardest ones first up in the gods, or at the back of the floor seats) and then release better seats nearer the time knowing people will probably buy them, very crafty but they play on people thinking seats are selling quick and getting a seat anywhere.

Other things to take into consideration - WrestleMania very rarely sells out anyway, even if there are less tickets this year, there are less international fans attending. And also probably less touts buying them this close to the event and selling them on for a higher fee because of the above reasons.

30 minutes ago, Daaaaaad! said:

I have a wacky theory behind this, seeing as this week's Raw suggests to me that this isn't, in fact, a clever angle (surprise surprise).

First of all, according to the DIRT SHEETZ~! both MVP and Lashley have been at Vince about this Hurt Business break-up as, clearly, they also know it's a terrible idea. Vince however has decided to push on with it regardless. My theory is:

• Hurt Business was a great heel stable and made Lashley a semi-credible WWE Championship challenger
• Vince knows this and wants Drew to get all the cheers at 'Mania
• Vince fears that Lasher will get cheered because he's part of a good stable, so split them up to make Lashley less enjoyable as an act

This, of course, will get Lashley booed and, by proxy, make Drew the big babyface.

Does it make sense? Nah. But all the shite on last night's Raw didn't make a lick of sense either, so my guess is as good as anyone's at this stage I reckon. 

This is also why I think they've but Daniel Bryan into the other main event. Stops Reigns getting cheered as much as he might of done and also gets fan reactions with the Yes Movement. 

You could be also be cynical and say he's there to take the pin too, but don't think he's in there because Vince wants or see's him in the title picture.

15 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

There was an interesting and quite relevant discussion on The Athletic podcast about the Women's Super League deal last week. For those who don't know, they've just signed their first domestic TV deal which is split between SKY and BBC which will give them the best of both worlds with SKY's experience and $$$ and BBC's mass audience. There was a very good discussion though with the guests from the FA and the WSL about the variety in the way they deliver though because they're well aware that older fans watch the games on TV while younger fans absorb almost everything on their phone so as well as covering all social media bases and providing bite size chunks and highlights, they're thinking of ways to make non-televised games attractive to watch on the FA Player. The US women's league have been streaming games on Twitch which brings it's own level of social interaction. They're looking at ways to do that or to be able to view with your mates online. All very interesting stuff.

I wouldn't say TV is a dying medium because it's still the driver for all this content in the first place but I do wonder when, not if, the day will come when we don't have a box or a dish, just a bunch of streaming subscriptions and a Chromecast. Poor @garynysmon!

Without derailing this thread and getting into trouble for bringing football chat into the Raw thread, this was covered really well on the recent BT Sports film 'ours' about ways non premier league clubs can attract fans, relate to fans & find other ways of sustaining their finances. I think there was one non league club based around social media, streamed games online. Worth checking out. 

Week 31A fixtures – Good Friday and Holy Saturday

Premier League

Leeds United 2 - 0 Sheffield United (Saturday)
Leicester City 1 - 3 Manchester City (Saturday 17:30)

Championship

Derby County 2 - 0 Luton Town
Millwall 1 - 0 Rotherham United

League One

Accrington Stanley 0 – 2 Burton Albion
Portsmouth 3 - 0 Rochdale

League Two

Cambridge United 2 - 0 Morecambe
Mansfield Town 1 - 2 Leyton Orient

Scottish Cup Round 3

Ross County 3 - 1 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (19:35)
Formartine United 0 - 3 Motherwell

Week 31B fixtures – Easter Day and Easter Monday

Premier League

Newcastle United 0 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday 14:05)
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 - 1 West Ham United (20:15)

Championship

Blackburn Rovers 1 - 2 Bournemouth
Swansea City 2 - 0 Preston North End

League One

Blackpool 1 - 1 Gillingham
Shrewsbury Town 1 - 0 Plymouth Argyle

League Two

Harrogate Town 0 - 2 Port Vale
Newport County 1 - 1 Bolton Wanderers

National League

Dagenham & Redbridge 1 - 0 Aldershot Town

Scottish Cup Round 3

Queen of the South 0 - 2 Hibernian (19:35)

Out of interest, when Bad Bunny does all the interviews on those talk shows (e.g. in the build up to Mania), are they only on the same network as WWE? (USA/Fox?). Maybe he brings ratings to all these other shows on the same network that shows Raw/Smackdown. So if that keeps the networks happy, then helps WWE negotiate future deals?

Also presumably WWE probably have lots of merch for him that probably sells like hotcakes (quick look on WWE Shop and he's the first person I see on the home page). 

I know it was done before (MITB winner), but probably would have preferred Edge coming back as a surprise and winning the MITB case, buggering off for a little while and then cashing in 'on his terms' rather than win the Rumble. I'm not Daniel Bryans biggest fan but you could have had him win the rumble to face Roman and then have Edge cash his way into the match/main event as the heel who wants the gold one last time. 

14 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Love Royal Rumble 2000 but Outlaws and Acolytes was a massive bore.

Must have seen the 2000 Rumble a hundred times and can't even remember this match happening.

13 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

It was only two and a half minutes long, surely it wasn't that bad?

That explains it. 

Fandango only seemed to be over with the WrestleMania Crowd (which you could argue was British fans making noise) during Wrestlemania week and on UK tours. 

I think with Fandango he was one of them that if he lost the music and got a big push as a different character he would have had no reactions at all, so had to keep the music and the dancer aspect to get those reactions, but a great warm up act (along with Truth) which isn't anything he should be ashamed of. 

Week 30 fixtures

FIFA World Cup 2022 – European qualifying (various groups)

Montenegro 3 - 0 Gibraltar (14:00)
Norway 1 - 2 Turkey (17:00)
Czechia 0 - 3 Belgium (19:45)
Ireland 2 - 0 Luxembourg (19:45)
Serbia 0 - 1 Portugal (19:45)
Albania 0 - 3 England (Sunday 17:00)
Bulgaria 0 - 2 Italy (Sunday 19:45)
Israel 2 - 1 Scotland (Sunday 19:45)
Romania 0 - 2 Germany (Sunday 19:45)

CONCACAF qualifying (Group F)

Puerto Rico 2 - 0 Trinidad & Tobago (Sunday 22:00)

I think one of my worst was when I also worked in a hotel. I worked a really long weekend of 12 hour shifts so by the end of the weekend my mind was completely gone and I forgot to check someone in on the system that had extended a booking in the same room, a regular who would stay every week on business, always up for a chat, gave us great reviews, almost the perfect guest in that respect. 

Anyway because I didn't check him in, his room was down as vacant on our system (you can see where this is going...) so I had a newly wed couple (who got married that day!) arrive to check in who were staying and flying out on their honeymoon the very next day, obviously I thought that room was vacant and checked them in. Some 5 minutes later to my horror they've come back down saying they've walked into a room with some guy in there wanking himself off watching TV. The funny (and lucky) thing is that they've walked into the room and he didn't even see them as he was that focused on the job at hand. Imagine just wanking and not seeing two people walk into the room staring at you.

They were a young couple and took it as well as you could in those situations and saw the funny side. Other than apologise a hundred times I had to offer a full refund, vouchers, free food/drink etc. And they gave us a 10/10 review which probably saved my job.

As for the business guy, for the next 6 or so months I had to worry that he might say something and also talk to him knowing what had happened and to add the icing on the story, his surname was Cockburn.

He still gave us great reviews every week so how I managed to survive this I'll never know, even to this day I do wonder whether he did saw them and was embarrassed to say anything or if he was totally oblivious to it all. I think the lesson learnt from all this (other than to do my job properly) is to always lock the door if having a wank in a hotel (or anywhere really).  

1 hour ago, wordsfromlee said:

About three years ago my local ASDA over ordered Mini Eggs by about four pallets worth, so ended up reducing them down to 10p a packet to get rid of them as they needed the warehouse space. I bought about a tenners worth.

They were a great couple of weeks.

Always go to Asda's the Tuesday after Easter Sunday when all the Easter eggs are dirt cheap. 

Week 29 fixtures

FA Challenge Cup Sixth Round

Everton 1 - 3 Manchester City (17:30)
Chelsea 3 - 0 Sheffield United (Sunday 13:30)
Leicester City 1 - 2 Manchester United (Sunday 17:00)

Premier League

Brighton & Hove Albion 1 - 1 Newcastle United (20:00)
West Ham United 1 - 3 Arsenal (Sunday)
Aston Villa 1 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday 19:30)

Scottish Premiership

Dundee United 1 - 2 Aberdeen
Celtic 0 - 2 Rangers (Sunday 12:00)

German Bundesliga

Werder Bremen 0 - 2 Wolfsburg (14:30)
Hertha Berlin 1 - 3 Bayer Leverkusen (Sunday 14:30)

I think the first few that spring to mind are.

Goldberg return vs Brock - Promo/Survivor Series match

AJ Styles vs Cena a few years ago. Great matches and chemistry between them both. 

Jericho/Owens - Friendship festival thing

Orton/Brock - Summerslam when Brock TKO'd him. 

Drew eliminating Brock from the Rumble Match.

Have to be honest the women's division hasn't ever done anything for me, I think Ronda did take it up a few levels but all forgettable for me.

Everything else I could take it or leave it, but thinking back Brock has been involved in a lot of good moments......Match against Bryan, Rumble elimination (having dominated the Rumble up to then), the radio/speaker thing, Orton at Summerslam, Goldberg etc.  

Got around 62 I think, surprisingly I got most of the recent ones..

Also surprised at how many superstars down the years wasn't IC champion (yes I was putting random names in)

Week 28 fixtures

Premier League

Crystal Palace 1 - 1 West Bromwich Albion
Everton 2 - 0 Burnley (17:30)
Fulham 1 -2 Manchester City (20:00)
Southampton 2 - 0 Brighton & Hove Albion (Sunday 12:00)
Leicester City 3 - 0 Sheffield United (Sunday 14:00)
Arsenal 2 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday 16:30)

La Liga

Sevilla 2 - 0 Real Betis (Sunday 20:00)

Segunda División

Mirandés 0 - 1 Espanyol w/Fog Dude (20:00) 
Sporting Gijón 1 - 1 Mallorca (Sunday)

Eredivisie

PSV Eindhoven 2 - 0 Feyenoord (Sunday 13:30)

Agree with the comments on Bliss, on one hand you could say it hasn't been great, but I do think she has done as great as anyone could do with that character.

In a weird way though without fans in the arena they could take her off TV for a few months, have her return as the old Bliss and I doubt anyone would bat an eyelid so don't think this will hurt her career in any way. 

4 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

They should have just cut the feed, like the explosion took the broadcast off air. Soprano'd the ending. They'd have got some stick, sure, but it'd have been better and less humiliating. Currently, Moxley and Kingston look like the biggest laughing stocks in wrestling.

Basically this is the only way they could have saved this.

I've not seen much AEW and after that I probably won't for a little while, not that it matters to anyone what I do/think but others watching the show may do as well, especially casual fans tuning in to see what the fuss was all about.

Christian as the BIG surprise also pretty poor after that much hype, the funny thing was that most of us here on the forum knew it would be a Christian or Angle. 

Going back to the HUGE star thing, I wonder if they are playing on words and it will be someone like The Great Khali. 

Week 27 fixtures

Premier League

Sheffield United 0 - 2 Southampton
Aston Villa 1 - 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (17:30)
West Bromwich Albion 1 - 0 Newcastle United (Sunday 12:00)
Manchester City 3 - 1 Manchester United (Sunday 16:30)

French Cup Round of 32

Valenciennes 0 - 2 Metz (15:30)
Olympique Lyonnais 4 - 1 Sochaux (17:45)
Brest 0 - 3 Paris St Germain w/@Briefcase (20:10)
Gazélec Ajaccio 0 - 2 Lille (Sunday 17:30)
Canet Roussillon 1 - 3 Olympique de Marseille (Sunday 20:00)

Austrian Bundesliga

Austria Vienna 1 - 2 Rapid Vienna (Sunday 16:00)

2 hours ago, Tsurutagun said:

One thing that annoyed me was the countdown clock. Kayfabe wise what would have happened if the clock went to 0 during the Naomi-Nia match? 

Things like this bug me as well, if they are going to do a countdown clock then maybe be creative with it, have Morrison delay a match/interrupt a match (so it restarts) and then when it runs over 15 minutes the Miz could then play on it saying its interrupted his preparation and he needs another hour, much better than pretending to have the shits.

Thought Raw flowed quite well and had direction/focus with the title match being the main focus throughout the show.

McIntyre/Lashley at Mania bores me shitless already, I can see the Miz getting a rematch at Fast Lane, maybe a 3 way with McIntyre/Lashley/Miz. Lashley to hold and hopefully Brock to return as face the next night on Raw to challenge him at Mania.

Not sure what happens with McIntyre unless they do something like have Brock vs McIntyre at Mania and the winner goes on to face Lashley for the title later in the night or go with a three way.

Seems to be some hype around this tonight, might watch live (only seen Mania/Rumble the last 12 months) and expect to be disappointed. 

Probably not charging my electric shaver knowing its about to conk out, then hating myself the next morning when getting ready and the battery is dead which ruins my routine.

Second one is when low on petrol and I decide to leave it until the next morning, then regret it every single time.

It's even worse when both of the above happens on the same day, put it down to laziness or being forgetful, I just like my morning routine to be simple and stress free.

Week 26 fixtures

Premier League

West Bromwich Albion 2 - 0  Brighton & Hove Albion
Leeds United 1 - 2 Aston Villa (17:30)
Leicester City 2 - 2 Arsenal (Sunday 12:00)
Chelsea 2 - 0 Manchester United (Sunday 16:30)
Sheffield United 1 - 2 Liverpool (Sunday 19:15)

Scottish League Cup Final (at Hampden Park)

Livingston 1 - 0 St Johnstone (Sunday 14:00)

Serie A

Verona 1 - 3 Juventus (19:45)
Roma 0 - 2 Milan w/@MVP RULZ (Sunday 19:45) 

Eredivisie

PSV 1 - 3 Ajax (Sunday 13:30)

A Primeira Liga

Porto 1 - 0 Sporting Lisbon (20:30)

Week 25 fixtures

Premier League

Burnley 2 - 1 West Bromwich Albion
Liverpool 3 - 1 Everton (17:30)
Fulham 2 - 0 Sheffield United (20:00)
West Ham United 2- 2 Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday 12:00)
Aston Villa 1 - 1 Leicester City (Sunday 14:00)
Arsenal 1 - 2 Manchester City (Sunday 16:30)

Championship

Queen's Park Rangers 0 - 2 Bournemouth w/@Vegeta

German Bundesliga

Eintracht Frankfurt 0 - 2 Bayern Munich (14:30)
Schalke 1 - 3 Borussia Dortmund (17:30)

Serie A

Milan 1 - 1 Inter (Sunday 14:00)